Mayweather: If McGregor Stole My Blueprint, It's a Good Thing!

by TMZ

Retired former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26KOs) claims that he nearly came out of retirement to face UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor.

Mayweather, 39-years-old, retired from boxing in September 2015 but was recently considering a bout with McGregor. The two fighters were going back in forth through social media for weeks, but then everything seemed to die down.

However - last month McGregor once said he was interested in fighting Mayweather, as long as Floyd could come up with the appropriate funds for the crossover fight - "Right now, I have Floyd running around the Showtime's offices gathering my money. That's what he's doing."

"He's running around the Showtime offices, begging those executives to come up with the $100 million cash he needs to fight me. As soon as he gets my money, we can fight."

During yesterday's press conference in New York City to announce UFC 205 in Madison Square Garden, when he faces Eddie Alvarez on November 12th.

McGregor, 28, is under contract with the UFC, and any potential fight against Mayweather (or anyone else) would have had to involve a co-promotion or the UFC's blessing.

“What people don’t know is that in my company [Mayweather Promotions], I’m the boss,” Mayweather to TMZ Sports. “I call the shots. I think the fight is very difficult to make. I mean, I tried to make the fight before and it didn’t happen. But you live and learn.”

McGregor's boasts about money and how much he gets paid by the UFC has created comparisons to Mayweather's pre-fight antics. If he did take a page from Mayweather's book, the retired pound-for-pound king applauds him for that.

“If he did take anything from me, if he did steal my blueprint then I think it’s a good thing,” said Mayweather. “I think he’s a hell of a fighter. He can fight, he can box real good. As far as stand up he’s very good, stand up fighting. Everyone is asking me ‘are we doing to fight’ and I just don’t know.”